Washington, D.C. [US], April 29 (ANI): U.S. Under Secretary of War Elbridge Colby on Tuesday (local time) held talks with NATO officials and emphasized the need to ramp up defense spending.
Colby said his “NATO 3.0” concept received strong support during the discussions. In a post on X, he said, “I had a very productive set of engagements with NATO colleagues yesterday, including a working dinner with twelve European ambassadors. In each, we had frank and productive discussions about NATO 3.0 and the urgent need for our allies to increase defense spending and accelerate burden-sharing to enable a European-led conventional defense of the continent. Fortunately, there is strong support for the NATO 3.0 concept. It is now essential that this rhetoric moves quickly to action.”
Colby had earlier outlined the concept on February 12, stating that what is needed is a “NATO 3.0,” closer to “NATO 1.0” than the approach of the past 35 years. He said the framework would require greater efforts by allies to assume primary responsibility for the conventional defense of Europe.
He added that the approach would not focus solely on military strength but would also include diplomatic outreach, in line with the Harmel Report and the dual-track strategy of the 1970s and 1980s. He linked this to President Donald Trump’s efforts to strengthen NATO while also negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, a CNN report on April 27 noted that global military spending rose by nearly 3 percent in 2025, driven by increased defense expenditures in Europe and Asia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
European defense spending rose 14 percent from 2024 to $864 billion, while spending in the Asia-Oceania region increased 8.1 percent to $681 billion, SIPRI said in its annual “Trends in World Military Expenditure” report, as cited by CNN. (ANI)
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